Accurate. I cannot understand your remark at all. I can only conclude that you have never had the experience of a really good wine. I can't blame you for that. The best wines are expensive because they are the best all round.
There are wines selling at very high prices per bottle in off licences and online. You can look up the wines if you don't believe me. The joy of bidding on lots at auction is that many are of past vintages which are no longer available in the stores. They are usually wines which have been laid down in cellars of experts who have had to sell them or their estate has to. If the wines have been stored properly, you can enjoy a wine of 40 years old.
The auctions for wines can be held online by auctioneers separately or on the ''Saleroom'' site. The lots are set up weeks in advance and you can see the vintages, where they grapes are harvested and the chateau they are ascribed to. Then you look up the interesting vintages and google Ai will tell you if they are still drinkable, what the grape harvest was like the year it was produced. <y favourite wines are Chablis and Meursault.
The Chablis has ordinary, premier cru and Grand Cru, all at unbelievable prices in some places, but can be bought at lower prices - not cheap, you might have to pay £50 a bottle for some by the time you add everything, but those wines would cost well over £100 when available. Grand Cru Chablis is out of reach except when it occasionally surfaces at auction. Meursault is ordinary or premier cru. There isn't a grand cru.
The very exercise of looking up the lots in the auction house, researching the wines and vintages gives you enormous chances for learning about wines. Ai has opened up a whole new information process which didn't exist until the past year, perhaps less. Until Ai you bid more by chance than you do now. You would be surprised how nice some of the very old wines are.
People are put off the age, especially if they have not researched the wine and year, so I am rarely bid against.
Don't just dismiss what I say. Try it for yourself. You can get all the information from the auction sites as to how to register to bid and what the terms mean.
You have a few weeks to research the wines which catch your eye, and the start price, the auctioneer's guide price. Chances are if you bid on the start price you will win it. My four wheels is a wheelchair, but if you have a car and the auction house is not too far, you can collect it yourself after bidding online. You can also attend the auction if it is near you. You are more likely to be bid against if you do, though.